{"id":553465,"date":"2025-12-22T12:09:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=553465"},"modified":"2025-12-22T12:09:35","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T10:09:35","slug":"bishop-ignatie-herod-is-among-us-christmas-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/bishop-ignatie-herod-is-among-us-christmas-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Ignatie warns \u2018Herod is among us\u2019 as society drifts from Christ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bishop Ignatie of Hu\u0219i reflects in his Christmas Pastoral Letter on the atmosphere surrounding the Nativity of the Lord in the modern world, warning that contemporary society appears to be \u201csuffering from many defects and countless spiritual fractures.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the bishop, the root cause of this condition lies within each individual. Without Christ, he says, humanity is unable to defend itself against self-destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe moral imbalances of society must be identified in the fact that the Infant Jesus, born in the humble manger of Bethlehem, is no longer understood and assimilated into the flesh of our daily lives as the One who is not only absolute Peace, Joy, Stillness and Love, but also the absolute Truth incarnate as Man,\u201d Bishop Ignatie said. \u201cWithout Him, everything in our world can be relativised, distorted and mocked, including the human person.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the Truth-as-Person, who is Jesus Christ, there is no longer any value capable of defending humanity from destruction and disfigurement,\u201d the bishop states in his message, entitled \u2018Herod Is Among Us \u2013 Slander as the Perfect Lie<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

Without Christ, humanity is vulnerable<\/h2>\n

The Incarnation of the Lord, Bishop Ignatie explains, responds directly to the intellectual and existential challenges of modernity. Quoting Saint Cyril of Alexandria, he argues that Christ, as Truth incarnate, is the sole path of deliverance from contemporary ideological distortions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThus, Christ the Child is the Truth-as-Person born as Man, so that we may fully understand that \u2018Life is Truth\u2019\u2014as an antidote to the tendency to idolise science at the expense of the inviolable dignity of the human person (scientism), as an antidote to the belief that only what is visible and experimentally verifiable matters, to the detriment of unseen spiritual realities (positivism), and as an antidote to the growing exaltation of pleasure as the essence of human existence (hedonism), instead of a life guided by eternal moral values,\u201d the Bishop of Hu\u0219i noted.<\/p>\n

The faces of Herod<\/h2>\n

The hierarch went on to analyse the figure of Herod, whom he describes as the prototype of the egocentric dictator and \u201cthe first supporter of the post-truth era in the history of Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHerod the Great was not concerned that the Infant Jesus was not a political figure,\u201d Bishop Ignatie noted, \u201cbecause he was consumed by his own individualistic and selfish \u2018truth\u2019\u2014a truth shaped by fear, prejudice and personal certainties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herod, he warns, is not merely a historical character: \u201cHerod the Great is among us today, in his many guises\u2014in society, in churches, on the street, in the workplace, and in political and cultural life. He slanders relentlessly and soils people\u2019s identities. He is present everywhere, like the devil himself, the first slanderer of humankind.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Infant Jesus is the Truth<\/h2>\n

In conclusion, Bishop Ignatie offered a path of healing. If believers allow themselves to be permeated by the presence of the Incarnate Christ, who is Truth itself, they will be freed from destructive passions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feast of Christmas is the good news that Truth is Someone\u2014the Infant Jesus\u2014and not something to be fragmented according to each person\u2019s wishes and opinions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we allow ourselves to be filled with the presence of the Infant Jesus, the incarnate Truth-as-Person, this Truth will free us from the spell of falsehood, slander and the deception of sin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will shatter the fragile globe of our egoism, sick with the desire for power and fame, and instead give ourselves in love, joy, peace, forgiveness, patience and service to our fellow human beings,\u201d the Bishop of Hu\u0219i concluded.<\/p>\n

Photo: Diocese of Hu\u0219i
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Bishop Ignatie of Hu\u0219i reflects in his Christmas Pastoral Letter on the atmosphere surrounding the Nativity of the Lord in the modern world, warning that contemporary society appears to be \u201csuffering from many defects and countless spiritual fractures.\u201d According to the bishop, the root cause of this condition lies within each individual. Without Christ, he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":485033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[11853,34047,36539,36540,36538],"class_list":["post-553465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dioceses","tag-bishop-ignatie","tag-christmas-pastoral-letter","tag-christmas-warning","tag-herod-is-among-us","tag-post-truth-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}